Temporary Goodbye
by XxI-Stole-Your-CookiexX
Summary: What if Lee hadn't turned? What if he had stayed alive? How will he find Clementine again? This is just what could have happened, because I couldn't let Lee die. I couldn't! ONE SHOT. This is a crappy summary though, so please just read to find out what happens!


**So guys, after finishing the game, I was just sitting there, in denial that Lee was really gone. I had developed a… crush, if you will. It was just too cute how he loved and cared for Clem like his own. And I just got to thinking.. his bite didn't look that bad. I mean, it looked sort of just like a scratch really. So don't get mad at me, because I know that this has never happened (except for in The Last of Us), but it was just an idea I had for a one shot. If people like it, maybe I'll make it into a story. I'm not sure. Anyways, read on.**

Temporary Goodbye

The first thing Lee Everett noticed when he slowly woke up and came to his senses was that he was thirsty. _Very _thirsty. His head was also pounding as if a marching band were putting on a performance inside of his head. He winced and let a small groan escape from his lips. He cracked one eye open slowly, the other one following its lead. Luckily, the room he was in was dark, so there was no light to hurt his eyes even more.

Lee went to put his hand on his head, but it was stopped abruptly when he tried to move it. Confused, he looked down and saw that his hand was handcuffed to the metal radiator next to him.

"What the…" he started, jerking his hand back and forth, wincing at the loudness of the handcuff clanking against the radiator. He stopped suddenly when he remembered why he was handcuffed there, and why he was where he was. Flipping his hand over, his eyes scanned his wrist and landed on the faint markings from where the walker had bitten him.

"This isn't possible," he whispered hoarsely. "I should be dead.. I-I should be one of those monsters!"

He ran a finger over the marks, and realized they weren't as bad as they had been before. They seemed to be healing. He clenched and unclenched his fist, gasping when he realized that his arm no longer felt hot and tingly anymore. It felt fine, actually. And apart from his horrible thirst and headache, so did he.

"I must be dreaming right now.. Nobody has ever survived a bite." But the pain from his head and his undeniable thirst made it rather clear that he was not dreaming. At that moment, he was very glad that Clementine had refused to shoot him, despite how much he had pleaded with her. His head snapped up at the thought her name.

Clementine!

He needed to get to her. He needed to find her so she could see that he's still alive, and so he could protect her. That little girl was more important to him than anything in the world, and he would be damned if he was given a second chance at life and failed to find her.

"How long have I been in here?" He wondered out loud. He scanned the room, hoping to find some sort of clue that could let him know. His eyes landed on the dead walker a few feet away. The pool of blood around his head where Clem had bashed it in was small, but not completely dry yet. Lee guessed that he had been here for maybe a day or so.

Now on to the next problem: getting the cuffs off. Moving the radiator was out of the question, as it was attached to the ground. Lee wasn't strong enough to break the chain that linked the two cuffs, and there wasn't anything around that he could use to pick the lock. He groaned and hit the ground with his fists.

"Just my luck. I do the impossible and survive a walker bite, but I'm going to die all because I can't get out of these fucking handcuffs."

But Lee wasn't one to give up so easily. He pictured little Clementine in his mind, out there in the city infested with walkers all alone, and suddenly his drive to get free was even stronger. He needed to find a way out. Not for him, but for Clementine.

He remembered that the dead walker was a police officer, and the handcuffs had been lying not too far from him when they had found them. Maybe, just maybe, he had a key to them in his pockets.

It wouldn't hurt to look, Lee thought. The walker was definitely out of Lee's arm reach, but just close enough that maybe he could get his legs around him. Lee scooted down as far as he could without pulling too much on his arm, and stretched his legs out as far as they would go. He just barely reached his head, but it was good enough. Putting one foot on either side of the walker's head, he slowly pulled the walker closer to him. He was careful to not pull too much, as he was afraid that his head would pop off.

He finally got the walker within arm distance, and was able to search it for a key. After searching all of the pants pockets without any luck, Lee was angry and doubtful. But then he saw a small little pocket on the front of the walker's shirt. He quickly reached for it and stuck his hand inside. Relief washed over him as his fingers brushed up against a small, cool object. He pulled it out and smiled when he saw he was holding a small key. It faded a bit as he remembered back, months ago, when he was in a situation quite like this. When everything first started.

"Time sure does fly when you're running for your life," he muttered. "Now, time to get the fuck out of here."

His hands were shaky and he was very impatient as he fumbled to find the lock. After many swears and attempts though, he finally managed to get the key in there and the small _click_ was music to his ears. He rubbed his wrist where the metal had begun to rub it raw. He sighed and stood up, but immediately fell back down as all the blood rushed from his head and made him dizzy. He caught himself before he could hit his head on the radiator, and eased himself back up, slower this time.

"If I'm going to get anywhere, I need to get some food and water inside of me first."

He looked around the small room, and the small room adjoining it. He noticed that there were stairs that led up to somewhere. He noted that as his way out.

He checked all of the drawers in the desks, and came up empty. There were no boxes or bags that could possibly be hiding any food either. He sighed and moved into the other room. He searched it, but again came up empty.

"Looks like we're going to have to wait, buddy," he said sadly, rubbing his stomach. Clementine was more important to him, and maybe he would get lucky and find something along the way. He picked up a baseball bat that had been lying on the ground, took one last look around, and headed up the stairs.

The first door he came to was boarded up, and if he listened close enough, he could hear the groans and shuffling from the dead in there. He decided that there was no way Clem had gone through there, and continued up the stairs. The next few doors were the same as well, but finally after about four floors, he got to one that wasn't boarded up and seemed pretty quiet. His baseball bat at the ready, he slowly opened the door and peeked inside.

It was a small office, with a few other rooms attached. The main room was empty, so he decided to check it out. He made sure to close the door quietly behind him before continuing into the dark room. There didn't seem to be anything of interest, but that didn't stop him from checking all of the drawers in the desk. He could have leaped with joy when he found a plastic water bottle in one, and it was _full_! Just as he was about to take a much needed drink, he heard a noise coming from behind the door closest to him. He sighed and set the water bottle down.

In his heart, he hoped that it was Clementine, who had decided to rest here. But he knew that was very unlikely, as he had told her to get out of the city as fast as she could and find Omid and Christa. He opened the door slowly, once again peeking in to see what he was getting himself into. He saw a walker, hunched over on the ground, doing what looked to be eating. Lee looked away, even now still disgusted by the sight of those things feeding.

He opened the door wider, and quietly walked in, raising the bat. He snuck up behind it and brought the bat down on his head hard before the walker even knew what happened. He hit it a couple more times, just to be sure. When he was finished, he quickly looked away from the mess of what used to be a person. His eyes scanned the room, looking to see if there was anything helpful.

"That looks promising," he said quietly when he spotted a duffle bag lying next to the small bed. It had probably belonged to the walker's meal, and if Lee was lucky, there would be supplies in it. He walked over to it and unzipped it. The sight he saw was so heavenly, he expected it to start glowing and to hear angels singing.

It was filled with food and drinks. There were canned goods of all kinds, power bars, crackers, cookies, water, juice boxes, and even a few sodas inside. Lee laughed with joy, a huge smile on his face. He picked up an energy bar, unwrapped it faster than the speed of light, and ate it hungrily. Once he was halfway done, he slowed down so he could savor the taste.

When he was finished, he threw the wrapper aside and zipped the bag back up. He decided that even though it was heavy, there was no way he could leave it behind. If he was lucky, he wouldn't have to do much running anyways.

After checking out the rest of the places, picking up a few more supplies, and drinking two bottles of water, Lee was ready to go. He decided there would be no more stops until he had Clem back with him. He hoped she hadn't gotten far, because if she did manage to make it out of the city, then he would have no idea where to start looking.

Even now, he wasn't exactly sure where to look. He had told her to find Christa and Omid, but he wasn't even sure where they were. He sighed and rubbed his face with his hands.

"Wait!" His head snapped up. "I told them to meet me back at the train.. Maybe they've found Clem and they're there. I just hope they haven't left yet.." Hope filled him once again, and he set out, more confident than before. But there was still the chance that they had left already, because he was supposed to be dead. He just hoped that he wouldn't be too late.

**xXxXx**

Lee had managed to make it to the railroad tracks without too many problems. Most of the walkers that had been around the tracks earlier had migrated to the center of town for some unknown reason. His shoulders were killing him from carrying the heavy bag around. Switching shoulders didn't help much at all. But when he thought about what was inside, it made it all worth it.

He could see the train in the distance, not far from where he was. This gave him hope, because maybe if the train wasn't gone, they wouldn't be either. If they were there. Lee Everett wasn't a religious man, but at that moment he prayed to God, or whoever was up there if there _was_ someone up there, that Clementine would be at that train, safe and sound.

He walked at a fast pace, impatient to get closer. It seemed like the more he walked, the further the train got. But Lee knew that it was just his imagination, and he was getting closer. Finally, he got close enough to see better. And what he saw made his heart stop.

There was Clementine, sitting on a box, with her head in her hands. Omid and Christa were off to the side, talking and pointing at the train. They seemed to be arguing about something. But Lee didn't care. Tears welled up in his eyes and he started to run towards the group.

"CLEMENTINE!" He exclaimed, startling the little girl, Omid and Christa. Clementine looked up, squinting. When she got a better look at who it was, her eyes widened and she jumped up and started to sprint towards him.

"LEE!" She squealed, excitement written all over her face. Omid and Christa jumped into action, weapons at the ready. Lee wasn't paying any attention to them. His eyes were glued on the nine year old girl running towards him. That's why he didn't notice when something came flying at his head, smacking into it hard, and knocking him down. The last thing he saw was a small, blurry face before everything went black.

**xXxXx**

"You killed him, you killed him! No, no! Lee, wake up! Please, wake up!"

"Clementine, that wasn't Lee."

"Omid, I don't think walkers suddenly learned how to talk!"

"He also made me handcuff him to this metal thing! I don't think he could have gotten out if that wasn't him!"

"But.. that can't be possible. He was bitten! He has to be dead!"

"I don't understand it either, but here he is.. He looks alive enough. Ma- Oh he's waking up!"

Lee groaned as his eyes slowly opened. His head was pounding again, and he knew that there was going to be a big knot on his head. He had to squint to keep the light from hurting his eyes, but the light was soon blocked out anyways by a small head. Clementine.

Water filled Lee's eyes again, and he couldn't stop the huge smile that spread on his lips. "Clementine."

As soon as the word left his lips, Clem was on top of him, squeezing the life out of him. He could feel the wet tears soaking through his shirt as he hugged her back tightly. A few tears of his own slipped through his closed eyelids.

Chrisa looked at Omid, who was shocked speechless. She shrugged and took his arm to pull him away from the scene. "Maybe his body fought it off. The bite was really small.."

"I-I have no idea. Nobody has ever survived a bite before.. Do you think he's immune?"

Christa thought about it for a moment. "I'm not sure. It's possible. I mean, there is so much about this disease that we know nothing about. How did it start? Is there a cure? How does it spread? So many questions we don't have the answers to."

Omid sighed. "Well for now, let's just be glad that we got our friend back. And Clementine got her guardian back."

Christa nodded, and smiled as she looked at the scene before her. Lee was sitting up now, and Clementine was in his lap, and they were hugging. Both of them were crying, which was a funny sight for Christa. She didn't think Lee was one to cry. But she did know how much he cared for that little girl, and knew that maybe she brought out a lot of things in Lee that weren't there before. She reached up and wiped a stray tear away from her cheek.

"Lee I can't believe it's you! I thought you were…"

"I know sweetie. I thought I was going to be too. But I'm not. In fact, I feel better than ever!" Lee told the girl comfortingly. It was true though, he did feel fine.

Clem pulled away to look at Lee. "So the bite didn't hurt you?" Lee shook his head and showed her his wrist.

"Nope. Look, it's even healing. I'm going to be just fine, don't worry." He smiled. She returned his smile and gave him another hug.

"Oh I'm so glad. After seeing my mom and dad, and then you.. I thought I didn't have anyone left!" She whispered.

"But you would have had Omid and Christa to take care of you." He told her. She shook her head.

"But I didn't want them. I wanted you. They don't care about me like you do."

This brought more tears to the man's eyes. Ever since he met this girl, he had been crying a lot easier. She was making him go soft. But he didn't mind.

She pulled away to look at him again. "Lee?"

"Yeah?"

"I missed you so much." She said, her voice shaking. He pulled her in to another hug and stroked her hair.

"I missed you too, sweet pea. I missed you too."

**WELL THAT'S THE END! I hope you all like it. It was just a random thought that came to me, and who knows, maybe it is a possibility that someone could be immune to the infection. I just didn't want to let Lee die and leave Clem alone. If you want there to be more to this, just let me know! It's a one shot until I get enough people who want me to continue. And ideas for what else could happen wouldn't be bad either! So leave your thoughts, concerns, ideas etc in a nice review, and I would really appreciate it! **


End file.
